In a ranking published by American media giant Bloomberg, the Embassy was placed at position nine, with applicants forced to wait for an average of 693 days to get the the crucial document.
The establishment based in up-market Gigiri had the longest standby in East Africa with none of the other stations Kampala and Dar es Salaam listed among the top 20.
In Africa, it was ranked fourth, after envoys in Abuja, Kinshasa and Lagos mark time were 850, 796 and 760 days respectively.
Globally, citizens from Georgetown, Guyana intending to visit America had an average waiting time of nearly three years – 900 days.
They were followed by consulates in Bogota, Columbia (874 days), Abuja, Nigeria (850 days) and Kingston, Jamaica at 813 days. The average global waiting time for a USA visa is 240 days.
The report comes amid complaints raised by Kenyans on the prolonged duration of awaiting visa approvals.
In July, the issue escalated when sprint sensation Ferdinand Omanyala nearly missed out on the World Athletics Championships which were held in Eugene, Oregon.
The Embassy had earlier notified citizens in its host nations that the earliest interviews for Kenyans who intended to travel to the US would be conducted in June 2024.
However, following an uproar, the consulate rolled out measures to expedite its application process. Among them was introduction of a platform that shows applicants the next available appointment slots.
The website will also clearly stated to prospective travelers payments are refundable and those that are not before submitting their application.
The embassy introduced expedited appointments for emergency situations, including the death of an immediate family member, the need to travel for urgent medical care, and for students with program starting in less than 30 days and who would suffer irreparable harm, such as the loss of a scholarship, if they failed to travel.
Source: kENYANS.CO.KE
